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silken

adj
/ˈsɪlkən/

Etymology

From Middle English silken, selken, seolkene, from Old English seolcen, from seolc (“silk”) + -en, from an unattested early Proto-West Germanic borrowing from Latin sēricum, from Ancient Greek σηρικός (sērikós, “silken”), from σήρ (sḗr, “silkworm”) + -ικός (-ikós, “-ic”). Equivalent to silk + -en (“made of”). Cognate with Scots selkin, silkin (“silken”), Icelandic silki (“silken”).

  1. derived from σηρικός — “silken”
  2. derived from sēricum
  3. inherited from seolcen
  4. inherited from silken

Definitions

  1. Made of silk.

    • a silken veil

  2. Synonym of silky, like silk, silklike, particularly

    • [L]ove is not to be bought, in any ſenſe of the vvords, its ſilken vvings are inſtantly ſhrivelled up vvhen any thing beſide a return in kind is ſought.
    • […] in spite of the buzz in the next room, Edith had rolled herself up into a soft ball of muslin and ribbon, and silken curls, and gone off into a peaceful little after-dinner nap.
    • He heard the silken rustle of a dressing-gown being drawn on.

  3. Dressed in silk.

    • [S]hall a beardless boy, / A cocker’d silken wanton, brave our fields […]?
    • Yet though he cannot skip forth now to greet / Every fine silken painted foole we meet, / He then to him with amorous smiles allures,
    • Last Saturday was three Weeks, at Two, in the Afternoon, I sent out my Servant, to watch a Couple of these Silken Strollers, and keep, if possible, within Ken of them.
  4. ›+ 1 more definition

    1. To render silken or silklike.

      • silkening body lotion
      • Or, if your sheep are of Silurian breed, Nightly to house them dry on fern or straw, Silk’ning their fleeces.
      • […] these lights silkened her black skin:

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at silken. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01silken02silk03filiform04thread05spiderweb06spider07web

A definitional loop anchored at silken. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

7 hops · closes at silken

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA